Friday, September 26, 2014

Obama Creates World’s Largest Marine Reserve

Palmyra Atoll
In the remote reaches of the Pacific Ocean, President Barack Obama Thursday created the world’s most extensive marine reserve by expanding a National Monument established in the waning days of the Bush Administration. These pristine waters in the south-central Pacific are now protected from commercial resource extraction and fishing. President Obama’s proclamation expands the existing Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, one of the most intact, ecologically sound marine environments in the world, to six times its previous size – from 87,000 square miles to more than 490,000 square miles. The Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument was established on January 6, 2009 by outgoing President George W. Bush to protect the marine environment around Wake, Baker, Howland, and Jarvis Islands, Johnston and Palmyra Atolls, and Kingman Reef. The expansion was achieved by extending the Monument boundaries to edge of the United States Exclusive Economic Zone up to 200 nautical miles from the the territorial seas around each of these seven Pacific Remote Islands...more


George W. Bush designated the original monument as he was walking out the door.  Several years ago a gentleman who was in the Bush White House told me they had no studies or anything, just drew some lines on a map.

Under the same authority, The Antiquities Act, a President could designate most of the Western U.S. a national monument and no one seems to care.  So much for the separation of powers doctrine.as envisioned by our Founding Fathers.


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